Film has duty to educate on human dignity, says archbishop

Rome, Italy, Nov 17, 2006 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Movies have an educational value and must be used as a means to “knock down the wall of indifference” to violations of human dignity, said Archbishop John Foley, President of the Vatican’s Council for Social Communications at a recent conference held by his office.

Cinema can teach young people "how dangerous hatred is, how unacceptable racism is, how destructive religious ignorance is," said the archbishop in closing the tenth Tertio Millennio International Congress on Cinema and Spirituality.

The congress was held at the Pontifical Gregorian University, under the theme, The Conspiracy of Silence.

Films have also been able to give a voice to the marginalized and rejected in society, with whom the Church is always in solidarity, he noted.

In addition, he said, films "can be, above all, the means to which the historic memory of all these forgotten, silent realities can be entrusted, thanks in part to the extraordinary power of the image, the universal language that is able to reach the heart and cannot leave one indifferent.”

The congress is an initiative of the pontifical councils for Social Communications and for Culture. Every year, they join Italy's Entertainment Bureau and a pontifical university of Rome to promote cinema with values, reports Zenit.